Deadly drug overdoses among U.S. teenagers have more than doubled in frequency in recent years, even as those in the age group became less likely to use illegal drugs, researchers from UCLA and elsewhere found in a newly published analysis.
The findings underscore the fact that teens face serious danger from the kinds of drugs circulating in the United States, including the powerful opioid fentanyl and other synthetic opioids and benzodiazepines, said Joseph Friedman, a UCLA addiction researcher and lead author of the study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“The bottom line is, the drug supply is just becoming a toxic mess,” Friedman said.
